The Riftborn
Hailing from '''Coroz', an alternate dimension orthogonal to the Endless Universe, the Riftborn would have happily lead out their abstract, timeless existences entirely ignorant of galactic strife, were it not for a breach that precipitated a disaster or unimaginable proportions. Like a poisoned blade slashed deep into clean flesh, the rift acted as a source of terrible disorder in the Riftborn's pristine, geometrical universe. Desperate, unable to halt the disease's advance no matter what they tried, the Riftborn took the last available course of action that might lead to their survival: Together with their strange time-shifting abilities, they stepped into the Endless Universe.'' Lore Leadership The Riftborn's highest authority in the Endless universe belongs to the Grand Viceroy of New Coroz. Although ultimately answering to the Communion back in the home dimension of Coroz, the Grand Viceroy wields singular executive power, and is invested with the authority to make unilateral decisions as the situation demands. Given the blight spreading through Coroz, the hostile environment, and the presence of unknown enemies, it is no surprise that the Communion's choice for Grand Viceroy came from what could be considered the Riftborn's closest thing to a peaceful race's military elite–a High Custodian. Tenacious and capable, the Grand Viceroy doesn't know how the Riftborn will find salvation, but they will do everything in their power to make it so. Homeworld Technically, the Riftborn do not have a homeworld, as their universe has nothing that resembles the Endless universe's planets. The Riftborn's home universe is called Coroz. A pristine place, free of shadows, where the Riftborn drifted and lived simple, happy lives as odd-looking white shapes floating in the endless grey void, meditating in peace. Unfortunately for the Riftborn, some of Auriga's survivors tried to escape their dying world on a wrecked Hissho research vessel called the Grey Owl. When the ship engaged its warp drive, a Dust artifact of immense power that was hidden in the ship's cargo bay exploded, tearing a hole between Coroz and the Endless universe. The rift began to consume Coroz and its inhabitants, due to incompatibilities of the physical laws of both universes, forcing a small group to flee through the very tear that was destroying their home, into an unknown and incomprehensible place for their minds. There was no cure for the blight, which ravaged Coroz until it was a blackened waste, devoid of life and light. The surviving Riftborn abandoned their homeland en masse, never to return. Upon their arrival in the galaxy, the Riftborn settled on a snow-covered world that they named Vanguard. Like the rest of the universe they find themselves in, they have little love for the planet, yet in its pristine, white snowfields they find an echo of their own universe, Coroz. Less a home, and more a staging ground for further explorations, the Riftborn inhabit a small corner of the world with order and vigor, which they named New Coroz, after their old home. Society The Riftborn who have ventured from their home dimension of Coroz and sheathed themselves in quasi-robotic forms are composed of a mixture of the race's most capable thinkers, engineers, and fighters. On Vanguard they are organized in what might be recognized as a semi-military structure, and their day to day life reflects this reality. Unlike Coroz, where Riftborn life used to revolve around serenity, contemplation, and the higher arts, in the Endless universe every Riftborn is striving to contribute to the effort to understand and eradicate the blight. Construction, exploration, and investigation feature heavily as the Riftborn build the foundations for further scrutiny of the Endless universe. Mechanics: The Riftborn for the most part operate within the normal game mechanics of ES2; they have several "twists" that make planetary choices (and food/approval management) very different, but they don't completely upend gameplay in the way that some other factions like the Vodyani or Umbral Choir would. Continuum Sculptors: The Riftborn can build special "time bubbles", known as "Singularities". These typically cost 1 turn of construction, some strategic resources, and some dust. They come in 5 different types which can be unlocked as the game goes on, and their effects generally have to deal with slowing down or accelerating production (of all resources) on target systems, although there are a few of them with somewhat stranger effects. Constructed Population: Although the Riftborn can grow almost any population type via food like any other faction, their primary population type, called "Riftborn" are instead built via an explicit industry-construction action on a system. The cost increases with the count of this population you have, but there's a flat minimum where no matter what, it will at least take a full turn to complete. These specific "Riftborn" pop units can be drafted/etc, but cannot die to starvation. If they are the only pop units present on a system, the food value will simply be set to zero. Note that there's a rare mechanic (usually resulting from winning a colonization contest), where a system will be considered to have a full riftborn pop unit, and a fraction of another pop unit. If this is the case, the system will be allowed to grow this fraction of another pop unit into a full unit (i.e. the food+growth mechanic will turn back on). Biophobic: The native Riftborn population finds the way that organic/biological materials can self-animate to be deeply unsettling, even horrifying, and are very uncomfortable living on any planets that exhibit these features of the endless universe. They're much more comfortable on planets with none of these sorts of behaviors. In-game, this is represented by a bonus on sterile planets, and a malus on fertile planets. It's worth noting that this applies uniformly to all population units regardless of type; this doesn't just apply to those of the specific "Riftborn" race. In-game, this is also represented by an absolute political unwillingness to terraform into more fertile planets; as a Riftborn player, you're actually allowed to terraform in the opposite direction - towards sterile planets, instead (this, as with most of their mechanics, is tied to the "Continuum Sculptors" trait, if you're building a custom faction). Furthermore, through a few unique technologies and their trait, they can add multiple population slots to sterile planets (currently they uniquely get +4 to sterile, and -1 to fertile), cancelling out what ends up being one of the biggest downsides to sterile planets - their tiny pop capacity. Industry-driven Colonization: The Riftborn have a twist on the usual colonization mechanics, where instead of being dependent on the food value of the target system, they depend on the industry value. They also don't send "supply ships". This is covered in detail in the colonization game mechanic wiki page. Traits Population Traits Political Traits Ships Riftborn have a hidden modifier which makes all of their ships have 10% less health than other factions; this is not listed with the rest of their formal faction traits. Also, none of the Riftborn ships have hybrid slots - every slot is designated only for attack, defense or utility. Colonizer Strategic Implications This ship has an unusually high number of utility slots, so you can actually make this quite fast, enough to offset the Riftborn's inherent speed malus, and still have some extra speed left over to make it faster than other faction's ships. Explorer Strategic Implications As a "pure exploration" ship this is fairly decent, since you have 3 slots. You get hit by the Riftborn speed penalty, but the potential for two engine slots in addition to the probe keeps this fairly good. It also has two weapon slots, which means it's a fairly solid early fighter. Not amazing, but not a complete pushover. Attacker Strategic Implications This really characterizes the Riftborn ships - it's a very unusually focused loadout. The character of this ship actually changes dramatically during the upgrade, because you go from having 1 defense slot, to having 4 defense slots. This starts as a glass cannon, and then after you get the upgrade, it's a well-rounded ship (though it has few utility slots). At any rate, the 4 attack slots on an attacker ship is incredibly high, and potentially extremely powerful. This ship has a total of 2 potential engines, and only 1 of them is available before the upgrade. Protector Strategic Implications This ship is actually a bit low on the number of Defense modules it can deploy - it can only field 3, when some other factions can put 5 on a ship of similar class. Not only that, one of them is locked behind the upgrade. However, it does have 5 utility slots (2 of these locked behind the upgrade), and these can be filled with support modules which cover the relative lack of defense (like flotilla shield modules). 5 utility modules of course means 5 potential engine slots, though the Attacker these go with has only 2. Coordinator Strategic Implications: The standout thing about this ship is it's got only one squadron slot. This is the very low-end of slot loadout for Coordinator ships. In fact, overall this has very low options for attack, without the upgrade, and even with the upgrade, it's rather mediocre at damage. This ship is firmly focused on two things: tanking damage (the four defense slots are "alright but not amazing"), but more than anything, boosting allied ships with support modules. The Riftborn are unusually able to do this because they've got abnormally high access to Strategic Resources (depending on the quest path you take, you're potentially able to get on the order of 60-70% more resources out of a lode than other factions - but more importantly the Riftborn need much less investment to get onto most sterile planets that house exotic strategic resources). This ship can field 6 engine slots (2 with the upgrade), but due to the slow speed of other Riftborn ships, and due to the advantage of using these as support slots instead of engines, you're much better off filling most of these with support modules. These are actually perhaps the textbook case for "fleet accelerators" - with some of those equipped, these ships can boost the speed of all ships in a fleet, and overcome the Riftborn's inherent speed malus (and low engine count on Attackers/Hunters). Hunter Strategic Implications This is not a well-rounded ship; this is a completely lopsided, vulgar display of raw firepower. This is a glass-cannon ship, plain and simple. Your hope with this ship is that you kill the opponents before they burn through your Protector/Coordinator ships and start hitting this ship instead, because it can't take much abuse. It's also got an extremely low number of utility slots: one. You've got a tough choice here - you could put an engine in this slot, but the potential payoff of adding a weapon intensifier is scary (at best, these could boost the already far-over-the-top damage potential of this ship by about 40%). You'd be relying on fleet accelerators to allow this ship to move at all, in that case, but you'll probably care to do that anyways, so it might not be such a raw deal. Carrier Strategic Implications Unlike most of the Riftborn's other ships, the carrier is surprisingly well-rounded. You can field up to 5 Squadrons (2 locked behind the upgrade), and you've got decent defensive options. 5 Squadrons is average or slightly above average for Carriers, and it helps to cover for the painfully low count on the Riftborn Coordinator ship. The other benefit of the Carrier is that it's fairly balanced both before and after the upgrade. You don't have some major unaddressed problem (like the Riftborn Attacker's low defense) that the upgrade is necessary to patch up. With only 4 utility slots, you don't have a lot of extra room to cover both engines and support modules (like squadron boosters), but you've got enough, especially if your Coordinators are picking up the load by using fleet accelerators. Potential Unique Faction Quest Rewards Strategy The Riftborn will often rely on other populations to supplement their numbers since Riftborn people are built with , not grown with . Generally, you should neglect improvements and exploitations only on planets you plan to be pure Riftborn. Faction Quest Main article: Riftborn Faction Quest. Category:Factions Trivia * Riftborn are called "Time Lords" in game files and some localizations. * Unfallen vines remind Viceroy about blight. * Viceroy tends to copy Sophon and Mavros expressions.